The Danger Around Me
by xXBalorBabeXx
Summary: There was never any way to ignore the life she grew up surrounded by, Noelle knew that... but when ghosts from the past start haunting her, will she lose trust in the people who had been there her entire life?
1. Off Balance

_It was the footsteps of Mary and Anthony running around in the hallway of the Trapani compound in New York that woke Noelle Trapani up late on a Saturday night. The 15 year old stretched her arms over her head before rubbing her bluish grey eyes and brushing her raven hair out of her face, hearing Michael say "Mary, Anthony, let's keep the noise down a bit, okay?"_

 _"Is Ellie asleep?" Mary asked._

 _"Yes sweetheart... remember what happens when you don't get enough sleep?" Michael responded._

" _You get overtired and irritable. Mommy used to say the same thing before she left." Mary answers, the mention of Kay leaving leaving Noelle feeling like there was a knife in her heart. Mary and Anthony didn't even know why their mother had left.  
_

 _Noelle pretended to be asleep when she heard the little footsteps run down the hallway… but it didn't fool Michael when he walked in._

 _"Ellie... was it the noise? A nightmare?" Michael asked as he helped her sit up... and noticed her flinch._

 _"I saw what you did..." Noelle said quietly, Michael realising it and carefully hugging her._

 _"I wish you hadn't... I remember the nightmares you had after seeing Carlo hit Connie. I wish I hadn't hit Kay, I swore to never hurt a woman. I forget that you're older now, you understand more..." Michael said before he cradle Noelle's face in his hands. "I will never hurt you, Noelle Adriana... I promise." He said, once again hugging her and lightly stroking her hair._

 _It wasn't long before Noelle was out like a light and Michael tucked her into the bed after lying her back on her side before he went to go check on his children, Michael quietly closing the door._

 _As Noelle was sleeping, her mind wandered aimlessly with many voices she didn't recognise flooding it._

" _Don't trust him, kid!" Moe Greene said._

" _Non sei sicuro, piccola!" Victor Stracci responded._

" _Ti ucciderà come lui ha ucciso Fredo!" Carmine Cuneo exclaimed._

" _There will be nowhere for you to run!" Philip Tattaglia said coldly._

" _Your grandfather had me as his enemy… do you really want to make an enemy out of Michael Corleone, little girl?!" Emilio Barzini taunted._

 _"Michael would be only one enemy for you… do you really think you're safe in any way?" Joey Zasa questioned..._

Noelle's eyes snapped open after that… catching her breath, she rubbed her face and pushed herself up slowly, looking around.

They weren't around… she wasn't even at Michael's home, hadn't been in a few days. Quietly, she stretched back out and muffled a cough that had first became noticeable nearly two days ago.

It had started out as a cough… the young teen reached her right hand up to her right ear and tugged on it in hopes of making the dull ache go away.

A part of her once assumed that only small children had gotten earaches, she hadn't dealt with one since she was 5 years old.

Noelle stopped tugging on her ear when she felt a damp washcloth being placed onto her forehead, looked up and saw Aldo… it was then that she realised that she hadn't been paying attention, judging from the open door.

"Shh… just rest now, kiddo." Aldo whispered as he brushed Noelle's shoulder length raven curls back.

She could hear it again, someone else talking.

" _Send Fredo off to do this, send Fredo off to do that! I'm your older brother, Mike, and I was stepped over, Twice!"_

" _Fredo… you're no longer a brother, you're no longer a friend. When you see our mother, I want to know a day in advance so I won't be there."_

"Ellie?" Aldo said, Noelle looking at him through feverish eyes. "Were you having bad dreams, kiddo?"

Noelle nodded before she sat up, Aldo carefully pulling her into his arms and the two hugging. She stretched back out after they let go, the washcloth back on her head and hoping it would take the fever away.

The echoing slap and _"Bitch!"_ being shouted, then Kay's painful scream followed too… but Noelle forced it out of her mind.

It didn't take long for her to close her tired eyes after reassurance from her father that the monsters wouldn't get her.

But as she traced the scar over her left thumb, she began to think back to how she got it.

 _ **Three weeks ago…**_

 _Noelle immediately turned the kitchen sink on and ran her bleeding thumb under the cold water, Al Neri running into the kitchen when he had walked in from the back and saw the blood._

" _Ellie, what…" Al started to ask before seeing the blood on the knife and that Noelle had been starting to cook dinner, judging from the uncooked meat she used for meatballs._

" _It was an accident, I wasn't…" Noelle explained, Al knowing that she wasn't fully recovered from the fall down the stairs at her school that rendered the nerves in her right hand damaged._

 _But here she was, trying to take care of dinner like she normally did… she was trying to regain her independence._

" _It's okay, sweetheart… it's gonna take time before you fully recover." Al said reassuringly as he tossed the last of the meat out along with the bloodstained knife. Thankfully, Noelle's wound wasn't so deep and Al bandaged it after using lidocaine before putting the first aid kit away and helping Noelle sit down in the living room._

" _Hey…" Al said after a few seconds, Noelle looking at him. "I know things aren't how they were and it's gonna take time to get back to that but you're being too hard on yourself, Noelle. You need to let yourself be a kid again." He said before they hugged._

 _But she felt like her childhood was long gone._


	2. Is There Any Innocence Left?

_**Two weeks earlier…**_

 _The small rocks hit her window and Noelle set her backpack aside and headed to it, seeing Vincent Mancini._

 _She opened the window and scaled down the ladder, running to him and the two teens embracing each other._

" _I know your dad will kill me if he finds out but I was going crazy without seeing you today." Vincent said as he cradled Noelle's face in his hands before they kissed, her small hands resting on his shoulders._

" _He's not the only one catching onto us… Mary's starting to ask why you're coming around here. She's not getting to grow up with you and it's not fair to her." Noelle responded as the two young lovers held each other, Vincent's right hand entwined with Noelle's right one._

" _Family is a complicated thing… I wish I hadn't been taken away from mine." Vincent replied, briefly burying his face into Noelle's hair._

 _They let go, Noelle slipping back into her room and out of her school uniform into a sundress and ballet flats before she snuck back out, Aldo telling her to have fun at the festival but not be out too late._

 _The Feast of San Gennaro was busy as usual, Noelle's right arm linked with Vincent's left one as they walked down the sidewalk together and Frank Sinatra's version of As Time Goes By playing from a nearby radio._

 _But as they were kissing, a car belonging to the Rosato crime family screeched to a stop and Carmine opened fire on them, Vincent throwing himself and Noelle to the ground and protecting her from the bullets._

 _Carmine screamed as a bullet slammed into his shoulder from Vincent's Colt .45 Python, dropping his machine gun as Vincent stood up and pulled Noelle up to her feet._

" _Of course… children born out of wedlock usually find solace in each other." Carmine said, Vincent whacking him across the face with the gun before handing the gun to Noelle and then picking up the machine gun himself, both aimed at Carmine._

 _A 1959 Buick screeched to a stop, Tom Hagen looking at both of them._

" _Get in, now!" Tom said, the two getting into the car and Tom driving off. "I'm getting too old for all of this… you two alright?"_

" _Yeah… we're okay." Noelle managed to answer._

" _Cover up the weapons." Tom said, the two doing so and Tom stopping once they reached the docks. He got out after grabbing the guns and tossed them into the river, getting back in and driving the two to the Corleone compound. "I don't want to know any more about the shooting, I doubt Carmine's gonna go to the cops. You two go upstairs, hide in a guest room." He said._

 _Noelle and Vincent obliged and headed into the house… they picked a room and Vincent locked a door as Noelle removed her bloodstained dress after closing the curtains._

 _Noelle wasn't shy about being in her underwear as she turned to Vincent… but he hesitated slightly as he walked over to her and they kissed. Vincent pulled his shirt off after Noelle unbuttoned it, her hands drifting down and unbuttoning his pants as he kissed her again._

 _They were a bit rushed from the adrenaline… but Vincent stopped once he and Noelle were completely naked and he grabbed a nearby condom, thinking ahead._

 _Once they were both on the bed after he had it on, Noelle bit down on her lower lip to prevent a scream… the Catholic school she went to didn't teach Sex Education so she had no idea that the first time could hurt._

" _Shh… it's okay…" Vincent whispered as both took it slowly and gently, the pain fading away._

 _Time stood still until both crashed back down from the high they felt, Vincent pulling Noelle into his arms and her head resting over his heart before they kissed._

" _I love you, Noelle." Vincent whispered, his brown eyes looking into her bluish grey ones as his fingers on his right hand trailed along her side._

" _I love you too, Vincent." Noelle responded in the same quiet tone before they kissed again._

 _They weren't ready to tell the others just yet about them, having only been together for five months… but they had a feeling that Tom had figured out…_

 **Present time…**

Noelle once again woke up and looked around, Aldo seeing the slight smile on her face.

"Someone looks a bit better…" Aldo said as he helped Noelle sit up a bit. "You were dreaming… so who's the guy from it, the one you're not ready to bring home to meet the family yet?" He questioned.

Noelle's face went a light scarlet color and she buried it into the pillow, Aldo lightly brushing her hair back.

"I can't believe I still talk in my sleep!" Noelle responded, looking at Aldo.

"Well when you are ready to introduce him, I promise I'll be calm about it… doesn't mean it'll necessarily stay that way though." Aldo said, Noelle knowing what that meant.

"Dad, no shotguns! Or any kind of guns!" Noelle said, still embarrassed even as they hugged… but she coughed again, Aldo patting her on her back as they let go.

"Okay, I promise. And you rest, I'll be back up here to check on you in a bit." Aldo responded as he helped Noelle lie down, kissed her on her forehead and headed downstairs.

Noelle readjusted the covers over herself and reached over to her bedside table, picking up the photo of herself when she was two.

The woman in the photo holding her was her mother, Frances Malone. In the background was Noelle's uncle, Marty 'Monk' Malone.

"I didn't understand… and I still don't, it wasn't his fault. I had already lost my mom, Uncle Monk… why did you try to kill my dad too?" Noelle whispered as she set the photo down.

And then she heard it.

" _The only pure thing to me in this world is you, my little niece… I wish I hadn't done what I did. But you're too young to understand."_

"Don't tell me I don't understand murder… I've been surrounded by my whole life. I'm not as pure as you thought…" Noelle said quietly.

She sat up again and swung her legs to the side, standing up and walking to the window as the navy satin nightgown fell back to just above her knees.

Looking out at the cloudy midday sky, she knew she had to start finding out everything in its entirety… but she also knew that the truth about her and Vincent would be out sooner rather than later.


End file.
